Politicians have a tough time in Canada today. One caller to CBC Radio's Cross Country Checkup says: "The biggest problem is that we have lost all confidence in Canadian politicians."

Bissonette, MacLean, Stevens, Caplan, Fontaine, Coates, LeSalle, and others have all created controversy - and high costs for the public purse. Their alleged misconduct and questionable practices while in office have contributed to popular cycnicism about politicians and political life.

But these examples should not jaundice us towards all politicians. It is too easy to find fault with those who risk providing direction and shape to our public life.

Moses, for example, had a rough ride on his return from extended study leaves on Mount Sinai and other places. [e.g. Exodus 15, 16 & 32] The 5th century BCE writer Aristophanes characterized a politician of his day as having "a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner."

While ancient politicians had small and closed communities in which to come under scrutiny, today we have the media with their relentless spotlights. One miscue and the politician - somewhat like the pastor of the local church - runs the risk of either a public inquiry or a ten-point drop in the opinion polls. To protect themselves, politicians look to the image-makers for help. But the image-makers provide a dream world, with all its temptations to focus more on form than on substance, on presentability than an integrity.

This ancient sport is neither helpful nor just. LIke the rest of us, politicians are human beings, with hopes, needs, fears, and ambitions. Neither as humans nor public servants are they well served by cynicism or relentless bashing. They shrivel if they are continually subjected to cynicism and anger.

Politicians may simply be the victims of a general turning away from the public interest in our society today. As a generation, we want our own needs met, and will forego concern for the commonweal to meet those needs.

As a municipality, province, nation, and planet, we cannot survive if we are tantalized only by our own desires. Robert Bellah has observed, "A society could not last a single day if its people were motivated by nothing except the maximization of self-interest." We urgently need people willing to act visibly as stewards of our common life.

And those brave souls deserve better than they've gotten.

Churches and church people can find creative ways of undergirding our politicians' better efforts. I do not, in saying that, advocate efforts like those of Prayer Canada, who seem more intent on dominating political processes with sectarian prayer meetings in legislative settings than on providing support or opportunity for dialogue. But I do advocate a more conscious effort to care for our politicians - not only about the stands they take on issues, but also about their personhood.

One Ottawa politician, I'm told, flies home across the country to be in the supportive community of his local church on Sunday morning. How conscious are we of the politicians and their families in our parishes? Have we done anything to acknowledge the burdens and stresses which beset them? How can we help non-church-going politicians to know that we appreciate their efforts for the common good? How can we assure them that we will be supportively critical?

Caring for our representatives in the public sphere is only a small part of our overall responsibility as Christians to care for God's earth and its people. But it is a good place to start, in counteracting the general cynicism about politics and political life.